Advocacy center to receive vehicle fees

Vehicle registration fees in Hunt County are allocated to help area children.

KETR

The Greenville City Council is scheduled to vote tonight on the transfer of fees to the Hunt County Children’s Advocacy Center.

The Council is set to consider the measure during the regular agenda, starting at 6 p.m. in the Municipal Building, 2821 Washington Street. A work session is also scheduled for 5 p.m. today.

The Hunt County Commissioners Court voted in June 2012 to add a $1 fee to the vehicle registration costs in the county, with the proceeds going toward assisting the Children’s Advocacy Center.

“The county is going to be distributing the funds on a quarterly basis,” said City of Greenville Finance Director Cliff Copeland. “We are going to the Council for authorizing those funds to them.”

At the time, representatives of the agency said cuts in state and federal funding were expected to leave the center, which provides services to victims of sexual assault and child abuse, with a projected gap of $61,000 in the coming year’s budget.

The Hunt County Child Advocacy Center, part of the Crisis Center of Northeast Texas, helps coordinate teams of representatives from law enforcement, prosecution, child protective services and the medical profession in conducting investigations into reported child abuse cases while striving to lessen the potential trauma on the victims.

The agency “planted” a pinwheel garden outside of the Hunt County Courthouse last week, in honor of April being designated as Child Abuse Awareness Month, with each pinwheel representing a child helped by the Children’s Advocacy Center.